Study of Complete Blood Count (CBC) Indices and Immature Platelet Factors (IPF) in Predicting Severe Dengue and Their Role in Deciding Platelet Transfusion

Background: The incidence of dengue in the world is rising rapidly. With a remarkable seroprevalence rate of 48.7 % in India, it is become an important infectious health concern now. Since supportive treatment and platelet transfusions are the crux of treatment, simple methods to detect trend of thrombocytopenia is needed which are easily available, accessible and reliable and can help in clinical decision making. Complete blood count with platelet indices and hematological parameters is a tool which can be explored in this regard. With this aim this study was undertaken. Material and Method: This is a retrospective observational cross-sectional study of 100 patients which were admitted in our institute in Solapur, Maharashtra. Complete blood count (CBC) along with routine parameters like liver function tests and renal function tests were collected. CBC markers were compiled and analysed by using statistical software SPSS v 20.0. Comparison between platelet counts wasin three groups of mild, moderate and severe (>1, 00,000, 21000- 1,00,000 and < 20,000) was done by ANOVA test and comparison with other indices was done using Pearson test. Results: Hemoglobin (15.18 ± 1.87 vs. 13.05 ± 1.61, p <0.001) with slightly raised hematocrit, plateletcrit (0.02 ± 0.04 vs. 0.15 ± 0.04, p <0.0001), MPV (9.91 ± 1.11 vs 9.82 ± 1.17, p value < 0.001) and IPF (15.60 ± 7.05 vs 6.94 ± 4.92 were significantly altered in dengue patients with platelets below 20,000 compared to platelets above 1, 00,000.Conclusions: Platelet indices and IPF are useful parametersin dengue fever. Platelet counts, Pct, MPV, IPF, PDW and P-LCR are useful in monitoring trendsin dengue fever and assessing severity so that clinical decisions for treatment and platelet transfusions can be taken.